if you want high quality fast, then you'd invest in a bunch of high-end video-cards and start running Octane (comes at a price too). On my machine, Octane runs about 50 times faster than Lux (2.0 MS/p vs 40 kS/p).

(Octane on dual GFX770-OC/4Gb, Lux on CPU i7-990X-OC (6-core)).
Published this http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2465942 yesterday, took 15 mins to render out.

 

BTW, longer rendering = having your shutter open for a longer time = more light. But I'm not that sure that too much specularity gives noise, I understood it produced fireflies. Nevertheless, still learning as well.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though